Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Spied Up Date: 2010 Lexus LF-A


More spy photos of the production Lexus LF-A supercar pounding round the Nurburgring have emerged.

The Lexus LF-A, which will go on sale in October priced around £300,000, will be officially unveiled at the Tokyo Motor show next month and just 500 examples will be built over the next two or three years, depending on how long it takes to sell that many cars.

20 cars are earmarked for the UK, starting in early 2010, and each owner being introduced to their car at a private circuit in Spain by one of Toyota’s hand-picked driving superstars.

The car, which began life in 2003, will be fitted with a 5.0-litre V10 engine that can be revved to an extraordinary 9,000rpm.

Lexus engineers are confident the unit will produce around 550bhp with ease and with a power to weight ratio 366.6bhp per tonne performance should be up with a Ferrari 599, the car’s main competitor.

Stopping power is expected to come courtesy of carbon ceramic rotors sitting behind 20-inch wheels.

Suspension is by double wishbones and coil-over dampers at the front with a multi-link arrangement and coil-over dampers at the back.

The chassis-tub is made from carbon composite, which will give the Lexus LF-A with one of the stiffest shells in production car history, and the outer body skin will be made from aluminium.

Thanks to: Autocar